ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to clarify the evolutionary history of naturalism first, and focuses on the relationship between naturalism and philosophy of scientific practice (PSP). Naturalism, as a philosophical trend, has its origin in the natural philosophy in ancient Greece. Naturalism has two important starting points in contemporary epistemology and philosophy of science. One is ‘naturalized epistemology’ firstly claimed by W. V. O. Quine. The other is Kuhnian historicism. Due to Quine’s great influence, naturalistic philosophy of science is usually dominated by interdisciplinary cognitive science. PSP stands on a position of naturalistic epistemology, in opposition to the traditional one which is mainly characterized as foundationalism. Joseph Rouse’s PSP has instantiated how to realize naturalistic position in studies of practices. On issues of epistemology, social constructivism instantiates social dimension in naturalism, denies priority of philosophical approaches, and attributes it to sociology.
